Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/796

780 some months before by the junta provisional as a means of rewarding the meritorious, not only in the military, but in all other careers, and shortly before the coronation the statutes were approved by congress and the appointments made. But the ceremony only supplied Iturbide's opponents with an additional subject for ridicule.

The harmony between the congress and the emperor was of short duration. Iturbide's impatience of restraint and claims to prerogatives soon made it evident that no balance of power could be maintained. The right of appointing the members of the supreme court of justice became a matter of dispute between the executive and legislative powers, and in it one of Iturbide's bitterest enemies took part.

Padre Servando Mier had returned from exile, and taken his seat in congress on the 15th of July as deputy for the province of Monterey. This extraordinary personage, whose travels, persecution, and sufferings, no less than his political writings, had gained for him notoriety, had escaped from Habana after his expulsion thither on the collapse of Mina's expedition, and had sought an asylum in the United States. As soon as he heard that independence had been proclaimed in Mexico, he once more turned his face to the land of his birth. But his usual misfortune still attended him, and on his arrival at Vera Cruz he was detained as a prisoner by Dávila, and confined in the fortress of Ulúa. Having been elected